Prior to 5.2, the Fluxfire Feline was easily the most overpowered pet. Since it was nerfed, it really varies. The Flayer Youngling is pretty great, even though Reflection was changed to Deflection; he still totally eats up critters, and critters are everywhere. I've recently leveled up a Scourged Whelpling (more common since 5.2, I've found, and an ideal counter to Dragonkin) and an Infinite Whelpling (hits like a truck), and an Emerald Proto-Whelp (perfect counter versus flying, PP breed puts some muscle into it, and it can have two heals). Mostly I just use perfect counters (ie, pets with abilities that do 50% more damage against a family, and take 33% less). I've mentioned them before, but...

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-Anti-Critter: Flayer Youngling (Rampage tears critters apart; Reflection is just gravy on top) -Anti-Mechanical: Amethyst Shale Hatchling (Any Hatchling from Deepholm will work; they have Stone Rush though, which hurts them and can make capture a pain. And it was slightly nerfed recently; 1 round cooldown now). -Anti-Aquatic: Jade Owl (Feels a little weak, but if Lift-Off hits your enemy will be more than half dead. Have to use a stone to make it rare quality). -Anti-Elemental: Rapana Whelk (Apparently a Shimmerscale Snail is better, but the Rapana Whelk is level 22-23 when you catch it. These things are BEASTS against elementals. This was my go-to choice for the Pandaren Spirit Trainers, and it could kill them easily... if Dive hit). -Anti-flying: Celestial Dragon (But a lot of Dragon Whelps work here. Just need a good magic ability) -Anti-humanoid: Twilight Spiderling (Any spider works; I prefer one with Brittle Webbing to Sticky Webbing because it does more damage, but Leech Life + Webbing is MONEY. Good self-healing and good damage). -Anti-magic: Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling (Very interesting pet, with a lot of diverse abilities. Have to stone it to get a rare). -Anti-Undead: Softshell Snapling (Almost any turtle works, but this is also kind of a weak counter: Powerball is a pretty weak move even doing 50% more damage).

The only one I don't have a perfect counter for is anti-beast, because as far as I know there's only one flying pet with a mechanical attack, and it's a TCG redeemed kite. Not shelling out RL money for tens of thousands of gold for that, when any mech in the game should be able to outlast a beast. I use a Clockwork Gnome for Major Payne's bear, for example.

Edit: I'm also not a fan of the anti-undead hard counter. Not only is Powerball weak, there are no power-oriented turtles. That means that fights are closer than they should be. This is slightly countered by the fact that the turtles will attack faster (after using Powerball), and have good damage mitigation or heals, but it still isn't fun. High power = bigger hits AND bigger heals.

The first five pets I'd get to 25:1. Yellow Moth. Buy it in the Exodar. Keep buying it until you get the one with 13 power as a green level 1 (this indicates a P/P breed, but you don't need to worry about breeds when you're just starting out, so on this one just trust me). Stone it up to rare ASAP. Eats aquatics for breakfast, defensively strong versus beasts. This is one badass butterfly.

2. Flayer Youngling. Love him versus critters. Prefer him for this purpose to the Kun-lai runt due to deflection.

3. A snail. At higher levels a lot of the pet tamers have elementals. He chews them up, spits them out, and laughs at their sad corpses.

4. A good mechanical. I like my Lil XT. Darkmoon Zeppelin is also a very solid choice. Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling is also nice, and has the extra bonus of being a double counter versus magic.

5. Emerald Proto-Whelp. Just because he's awesome. Both high power and, thanks to his heals and mitigation, great survivability. Double counter versus flyers, but very versatile as well; the only thing he's really vulnerable to is humanoids, and you don't face many in the wild.

Those are my personal choices, but while leveling for the first time, I'd say the best thing to do is pick a team of three with one strong versus critters (a beast, or even better, a humanoid with beast attacks), one strong versus beasts (a mechanical, or at least a flyer who will have good defense against them), and then a third strong against either aquatics or flyers, because those four families are what you'll be facing the most in wild battles and it'll make leveling easier. Once you get your first set of 25's you can start power-leveling more specialized pets for the higher level tamers and PVP. Whatever you choose, always battle with blue (rare quality) pets when possible.

With the above 9 pets, at least in the breeds I use, all of the bag-offering tamer dailies can be 2-petted, allowing you to level a lowbie on the team. (The spirit tamers can also be 2-petted, but I mix in other pets on those. The fabled beasts aren't worth 2-petting because the xp sucks.) And then for pet hunting and leveling in general:

10. Terrible Turnip, who is weaksauce in general but great for capturing pets due to an ability that won't take the opponent below 1 health. 11. Feline Familiar, who is strong against both flyers and critters, vulnerable to very few wild pets (you don't face a lot of mechanical abilities), has a nice defensive move, and thanks to Devour will heal up between each opponent, which makes it easy to go long periods without bandaging. She's my favorite for leveling lowbies.

-Anti-Elemental: Rapana Whelk (Apparently a Shimmerscale Snail is better, but the Rapana Whelk is level 22-23 when you catch it.

Come now, surely anyone willing to grind out the insane title can go get a Shimmershell and level it up. Actually, get two; the H/P is the highest power snail and the H/H is the highest health (tied with Scooter).

LockeColeMA wrote:

Edit: I'm also not a fan of the anti-undead hard counter. Not only is Powerball weak, there are no power-oriented turtles. That means that fights are closer than they should be. This is slightly countered by the fact that the turtles will attack faster (after using Powerball), and have good damage mitigation or heals, but it still isn't fun.

Saywhat? Is there something I'm missing? Why aren't you using a frog versus undead? Also a double counter and Tongue Lash is so much better than stupid old Powerball. I use three frogs, but P/P yellow-bellied bullfrog is my fave. I called mine Jojen, of course.

-Anti-Elemental: Rapana Whelk (Apparently a Shimmerscale Snail is better, but the Rapana Whelk is level 22-23 when you catch it.

Come now, surely anyone willing to grind out the insane title can go get a Shimmershell and level it up. Actually, get two; the H/P is the highest power snail and the H/H is the highest health (tied with Scooter).

Yeah, I really have no excuse

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LockeColeMA wrote:

Edit: I'm also not a fan of the anti-undead hard counter. Not only is Powerball weak, there are no power-oriented turtles. That means that fights are closer than they should be. This is slightly countered by the fact that the turtles will attack faster (after using Powerball), and have good damage mitigation or heals, but it still isn't fun.

Saywhat? Is there something I'm missing? Why aren't you using a frog versus undead? Also a double counter and Tongue Lash is so much better than stupid old Powerball. I use three frogs, but P/P yellow-bellied bullfrog is my fave. I called mine Jojen, of course.

Aaaaand, now I feel like an idiot. I'm going to go catch a yellow-bellied bullfrog (PP) today

Onyxian Whelpling: There are two of these that are nearly identical: One you catch in the wild, and the other you got out of a WoW Anniversary reward. If you have the Anniversary Reward, this is an awesome pet to start out with if you don't have a green proto whelp. Also, the Anniversary Reward starts out at Blue-Quality by default; trying to get a blue one in the wild isn't the easiest thing to do. This pet has very strong draconic attacks, and also has a heal.

Pterrodax Hatchling: This pet is gained through Archaeology. Sometimes getting Fossil to spawn can be a challenge, but the pet itself isn't all that hard to get to come up. This pet has flying attacks (which work great against Aquatics), is fairly fast, AND has a Heal. Unlike the Onyxian's (and the Proto Whelps') Heal, you don't have to use it directly after a big hit to get the most out of it. Its #1 Attack can be paired with its #3 Attack for a Two-Hit-Kill on most Grey/White Aquatic enemies, sometimes even greens if you get a critical.

Darkmoon Tonk: This thing hits like a truck and has a lot of HP to take punishment. This is the thing you will want to use against all of those beasts you find in the wild, and best yet, it is easy to obtain! You get it from the Darkmoon Faire for a measly 60 (IIRC?) prize tickets. It has a Stun that does HUGE damage (Shock and Awe), and it has a two-round buildup that doesn't seem to miss, ever, that hurts like **** (Shock and Awe + Two Lock-Ons kills Fezwick, that Purple monkey the guy at the Faire has). This thing will absolutely destroy any beasts you come across. Since beasts have that "Deal More Damage at Low Health" ability, this pet is perfect! Lock On, Stun, Lock On and its dead without it ever going into rage mode.

Water Waveling: Surprised nobody has mentioned this. Not the easiest pet to get, but once you get up to Northrend Levels, definitely pay Zul'Drak a visit and grab yourself one. A Lv25 Water Waveling is the perfect thing to kill anything Mechanical (including the Faire guy's Tonk, which it has no trouble soloing at all). You can pull cheap combos like throwing down a Geyser, then using Frost Nova, and then using Ice Lance. If the thing is somehow still not dead by the time you use Ice Lance, it should be when the Geyser goes off.

Darkmoon Tonk: This thing hits like a truck and has a lot of HP to take punishment. This is the thing you will want to use against all of those beasts you find in the wild, and best yet, it is easy to obtain! You get it from the Darkmoon Faire for a measly 60 (IIRC?) prize tickets. It has a Stun that does HUGE damage (Shock and Awe), and it has a two-round buildup that doesn't seem to miss, ever, that hurts like **** (Shock and Awe + Two Lock-Ons kills Fezwick, that Purple monkey the guy at the Faire has). This thing will absolutely destroy any beasts you come across. Since beasts have that "Deal More Damage at Low Health" ability, this pet is perfect! Lock On, Stun, Lock On and its dead without it ever going into rage mode.

The Darkmoon pets all go for 90 price tickets me thinks. But it's still not hard to get.

Water Waveling: Surprised nobody has mentioned this. Not the easiest pet to get, but once you get up to Northrend Levels, definitely pay Zul'Drak a visit and grab yourself one. A Lv25 Water Waveling is the perfect thing to kill anything Mechanical (including the Faire guy's Tonk, which it has no trouble soloing at all). You can pull cheap combos like throwing down a Geyser, then using Frost Nova, and then using Ice Lance. If the thing is somehow still not dead by the time you use Ice Lance, it should be when the Geyser goes off.

Another good use of the water waveling is its AoE is great for taking out the trainer Nishi's backrow pets. She almost always (like, 90+% of the time) starts with the sunflower, which just heals and then uses Sunlight every 7-8 or so rounds. With the Waveling's tidal wave, you can take down all the pets, then finish off the sunflower with a few strong direct hits.

An even better choice is a Sea Pony; not only do you have Tidal Wave, but Cleansing Rain will help you recover most of the damage from Sunlight, plus it increases the damage of Tidal Wave. Add in 10% more from Pump, and the fights go faster and you can level up any lowbie character with more than 250ish health. Only issues are that the Sea Pony needs to be fished up off Darkmoon Isle (took me around 50-100 casts, I think), and it starts off as green quality.

I use P/P Emperor Crab for Nishi. He can solo all three of her pets in a short number of rounds, including killing the sunflower before she can cast a second sunlight. I'll open with 1 or 2 low levels (<level 5 is fine since they only need to take the 1 sunlight and no other damage) each taking one turn, then bring in the crab. I've tried a few pets with Tidal Wave given the 2 elementals in that fight, but none of them have great power and in practice the crab always feels faster to me.

Wanderer's Festival Hatchling is real powerhouse for me. It has good defensive ability, self healing, and I like the pump ability for a big blast. It works great against elementals and critters, in particular. It may not be a well known pet. You can only get it late at night on Sundays during the Wanderer's Festival in Krasarang Wilds.